New Caps and Old New Caps

Edit: Judging by the silence around here since I posted and the lack of comments (oh, and the title of the post right before this...nice, Jordi!) I'm guessing I am one of the few people happy today. So I ask - how is that possible?!

...oh, right. No Rangers fans in the HLOG. I forgot. Chin up, ladies - take heart that your teams probably were so close to perfect you didn't need all these silly additions to your roster...right? Right?

May I just say woo...HOO!

This is the first time in a long time that I have not sat around on July 1, July 2, July 3, and wondered what the hell my general manager was doing. This is the first time in a long time that more than one free agent of any note has wanted to come to DC. This is the first time in a very long time that I actually have hope for the Caps' upcoming season that isn't completely based on misplaced delusions.

Let's recap what has frankly been a really exciting two days here in DC, shall we?

- Tom Poti: A puck-moving defenseman coming off a career year and at 30, just hitting his stride on the blue line. Someone I thought the Caps would pick up a few years ago, apparently he was very high on their list from the start - so high that McPhee called at 12:01 pm, the first team to contact Poti. The addition of Poti adds someone who can create the breakout pass (something the Caps have had problems with in the past...clearing the zone? What is clearing the zone? Huh?) and who can quarterback a power play that with Ovechkin and Semin should not have struggled as much as it did last season.

- Viktor Kozlov: Another Isles castoff, Kozlov brings a skilled winger to help set up either one of our young Russians. He has played on a line with Ovechkin for Team Russia and that was apparently part of the draw for him to come to DC. His addition should further bolster the Caps' special teams and more interestingly their fortunes in the shootout...if you followed them at all last year you know that they won once. Out of 17 tries. Yeah, that ain't pretty. Two years at $2.5 million makes him a low-risk bargain, too, which you can't exactly say about some of these long-term deals being tossed around.

- Michael Nylander: Oh, Michael. This one is brand new (like an hour ago brand new) so I'm a little too giddy to really look at this with an analytical eye like the other two. I will say that I loved Nylander during his first stint with the Caps and the thought of him feeding passes to Ovechkin is almost too much to bear, it's so exciting. In Nylander the Caps get a center for their first line who can also mentor his fellow countryman and Caps' rookie Niklas Backstrom, and I for one am beyond excited to have him back in the nation's capital. I think I've said it before...

(As for those false reports that had him going to Edmonton? No idea what happened there. Sorry, Oilers...)